25X of what?   25x of what total amount? 

25x of your total net worth? 

25x of your total investments?  Your tax-deferred accounts + Roth + brokerage statement amount?  

Or 25x of your usable after-tax spending amount? 

How much is YOUR money?

Freedom

Leading into retirement, when people are asked, they will often say “freedom” is what they most look forward to.  They usually want to “travel, spend time with loved ones, and pursue what they choose.”

I think that is a perfect, well-rounded freedom plan heading into retirement.  They are not wrong.

Ability

I saw that a local restaurant had a Thursday special.  They have 10 wings for $10.

For some reason, this struck me as “what kind of deal is that?”  How is $1 per wing a good price?

Time Matters

This is where the gap in actions shows the span of time—the gap in purchase time.

We used to go out for the wing special at a local “tavern.”  The last time we went, the prices were 10-cent wings.  Yes, it was a crazy low price then $1.20 per down.

On Fact Central (Facebook), there was a post in a FI group asking about how closely people followed the 4% (or other %) rule, like it was the gospel of cash flow.  Their question steered towards the guardrails withdrawal approach, which is structured to withdraw more (spending) when markets are good and less (spending) when markets are bad.  SUPER INTERESTING strategy.

I should have put these thoughts in the previous post, but they came together later.

I was thinking more about some of the case studies I’ve been around.  I think of two people who tend to share their advice from their perspective quite often.

When someone shares their thoughts (like some random typer like me) on the internet or in person, it’s important to know where they’re coming from.  What is their perspective?  What is the foundation their basing their thought/position on?  What is their past?

Current FI Mode. 

Where on the FI journey is the thought-person?  Notice I didn’t say “though LEADER.”  I’m so sick of “leaders” and “influencers.”  All of this spewing of thoughts is nothing more than someone wanting to share something for themself.  Yep, I get the irony.